Tolentreasures

  JWS gets quite the ideas sometimes.  Most of the time they include me.  This is no exception.   He had a vision!  Luckily, they are not daily.  I would be exhausted.    Apparently, the typical fall decor that we usually do, wasn't going to cut it this year.    So I am cutting and gluing and  visiting Pinterest a lot for ideas.  This is the start, there will be a lot more to follow.   Centerpieces for the big fair meeting!      Fun projects though!   And the kitchen... the before picture was in the last post.    What a change for the better! 

Ok  so we are not farmers and.. we don't even have a garden, not even a tomato plant this year.  Non-agricultural all the way.  Never mind the 20+ years that JWS spent as a dairy farmer.  Town life all the way now.  So, why do I have incubators of eggs on my dining room table, you ask? Close proximity to the Dayton Fair.  The eggs needed a home  close to the fair.  They will hatch fair week not in my house but at the fairgrounds.  They just needed a shorter commute to the fair and a safe place to  incubate. So for a few weeks,  we are chicken farmers... sort of. And this morning....I am out of eggs to make pork chops... Tempting?  Absolutely not.... someone is going to the store.  My worst fear?  That one of those little buggers decides  to be premature!  How appropriate that the centerpiece on my table...

    http://www.daytonfair.com/   A week long event that takes a lot of the summer to prepare for, a week of the fair which equals little sleep and a lot of work and another week to recuperate. I am on the recuperation end of it.  And the cleaning up, putting away, trying to salvage my yard and plants, working through the mountain of laundry and bills and mail and messages. But most of all... trying to catch up on SLEEP!  

Make Popcorn Balls! JWS has been wanting a popcorn machine. He has searched all the regular sources, Ebay, Craig's List, Restaurant Warehouse, Etc. Not just for at home, he thought the fair needed one. There was one, years ago. And that brought back the memories of Don Pennington. I am not sure how I met him, but he became a friend. Twenty years older than me, but we both had a love for all things old and primitive and worn out, long before "primitive" was popular. He would dig around in old barns and attics and basements and find stuff that no one else wanted or even knew they had and bring it home and fix and clean and strip and refinish and a treasure would be born. He would stop at my house and stop at work and tell me to drop in his workshop and see his latest treasures. The original "picker". He always had a project for me and I have to say that he was the person ...

Fair entries and ribbons! Dad won one also. And Mom did well.  This is Garren's baby quilt. Blue Ribbon Winner! And her crayon bags, another Blue Ribbon Winner. This one will be listed on my selling blog today! 

The last seventeen days have flown by!  Good intentions were made to blog it all. That is all that they ended up being... good intentions. Remnants of a clown.  Left in a balloon bouquet.  And shoes by the door. Toodles stayed with us for the week of the fair. I must say though, I never passed her in the house after she "checked in" on Tuesday. The week was that hectic. Check her out HERE! She was a great asset to the fair! The kids loved her! More tables painted the week before the fair.   There was one for me. Pics of it tomorrow. It is still loaded in the back of the truck. Another penny rug finished right before the fair. And... The week before the fair, I had the pleasure of spending the day at Idlewild with Gracelyn, Garren and Kendall. Here the girls are ready for the day. Gracelyn held on to that map all day. I think it was a Dora thing. Kendall was ready to pull her older cousin through Storybook Forest. Driving the train. A sleepover with Gracely...

Just yesterday, I was lamenting to JWS that I don't know where summer has gone. We have been busy at work and we have worked some long days Regretting that we have not been to the zoo, an amusement park, not ridden our motorcycles, etc. I was looking at the cup half empty. It has been a bit of a rough time lately in several areas, all uncontrollable factors at this point in our lives. And then he pointed out... a different kind of entertainment. We have been to these. Horse races at the fairgrounds next door. Grandchildren and simple entertainment. Kendall was totally entertained playing in the sink while I cooked supper. The boys at work.... have found ALL the settings on my phone camera. (Hence the black and whites at the top of this post, but I kind of liked those!) And golf ball/tee bowling. Papa built them the lane for it and they have had tons of fun with that. And county fairs. As a fair manager, JWS, with me in tow, now has full access to any county fair. FREE! What ...

This was the view from my front door last night. JWS looks like he is enjoying going back to his farmer roots. Even if the tractor is RED. He is just happily mowing the field across from our house. Getting ready for the fair. You see, on Friday and Saturday night of the fair, this will be a parking lot. Such a peaceful sight the other 363 days of the year. But for two nights, this will be packed full of cars. And it will be mowed nice and tidy for them. Found this vintage dish towel the other night on my way home from Indiana. You see, a trip to the doctor Tuesday afternoon confirmed what our resident medical assistant, Shawnee had been telling me all along. Plantar Fasciitis. (had to google that to spell it right) Exercise it and don't quit walking. Movement is life. (Shawnee also quotes that regularly) On my way home from the doctor, I slipped into Denise's Antiques I looked for a website to link here but there is nothing. I love this place, but don't seem to be able ...